Customer service is a particular concern in the restaurant industry where competition for customers is tight. Poor service or repeated problems can lead to an unpleasant dining experience, resulting in the loss of business and the development of a poor reputation for the restaurant. One of the primary causes of many service problems is the inability of patrons to quickly and easily communicate with their waiter/waitress or manager, especially when the restaurant is busy, or, when due to lack of staffing or other problems, a waiter or waitress has responsibility for tables in different areas of the restaurant, possibly on opposite ends of the restaurant. As a result, waiters and waitresses can get too busy to monitor each of their tables on a regular basis. In addition, difficult or demanding customers who monopolize a large portion of the waiter or waitress' time further compound this problem. As a consequence, patrons will be frustrated with their inability to contact and communicate with their waiter or waitress for even simple requests such as drink refills. Such frustrations lead to dissatisfaction on the part of the customer, which at times requires the intervention of the manager to try to salvage the situation and placate the dissatisfied customers such as by offering free food or “comping” all or part of the customers meal.
Most restaurants further inherently operate inefficiently as a result of the necessity for the wait-staff having to spend much of their time gathering and distributing information. For example, waiters repeatedly visit tables to ask if the customers have any requests, if they are ready to order, ready for their check, to advise them how their order is progressing, etc. The wait-staff typically takes and records the customer's orders on paper, after which orders are then walked to the kitchen or central services stand for input to the cooking staff. In more technologically advanced restaurants, computers are used to keep track of orders and inventory. But even in these cases there are many inefficiencies. For example, most waiters generally still take the orders using a pad and pen, after which they walk over to the data entry device, such as a PC, to enter the order into the restaurant computer system. Such a method of order taking is still inefficient and results in occasional order errors. Furthermore, the cooking staff has no effective way to inform the waiter that an order has been prepared and is ready to serve. Thus orders generally must sit and wait until the waiter comes into the kitchen to check the order. These delays extend the time that customers spend at the restaurant and prevent the restaurant from using the table to serve new customers.
Restaurants additionally lack accurate operational data to guide management for making decisions. Presently, the industry does not appear to have an integrated system to collect data concerning customer satisfaction, inventory levels, available seating wait times, employee performance and general information concerning the operation of the restaurant. For example, restaurants presently collect customer satisfaction information by asking customers to fill out response cards at the table or contracting with a firm to call customers at home. Both of these methods have problems. If the customer completes the response card at the table, it will then need to be reviewed and processed to generate statistical information that will be useful to the restaurants management. If the customer satisfaction information is gathered later by calling the customers, the information becomes less precise because significant time has elapsed between the dining experience and the gathering of the data.
Restaurants thus, generally lack a good way of measuring employee performance, particularly in restaurants staffed by young people with little work experience, leaving some employees to pull more than their share of the workload, while others are under performing. If an employee is providing poor service or has a bad attitude, it may go unnoticed by management. This can cost restaurants a loss of customers who may choose to never visit the restaurant again rather than report the problem to a manager. Similarly, the inability to accurately determine how fast tables are being turned, poses a problem for restaurants. Quite often, all the available seats in a restaurant will be occupied and customers put on a waiting list, with the hostess or manager being left to guess as to the wait times. If wait times are overestimated, the restaurant may lose business from customers perceiving the wait to be too long and leaving. If the time is underestimated the customer becomes frustrated by waiting longer than the estimated time.
Restaurants also need ways to better tailor advertisements to their customer. Most advertisements that are used presently, generally are somewhat generic in nature and tend to be less effective than advertisements that designed to fit the customer. For example, restaurants typically use point-of-sale signs or cards provided by the vendor to advertise beer or other alcoholic beverages, which ads typically have little, or possibly a negative effect, on customers with children who are visiting at breakfast or lunch. Furthermore, most advertisements are not timed to correspond with the purchasing choices being made, but instead are static and cannot be easily changed to fit the customer(s). For instance, restaurants often place cards on the table showing the special meals of the day. This advertisement becomes useless after the customer has placed their food order, whereupon the restaurant needs to promote the sale of deserts or drinks.
Accordingly, it can be seen that the need exists for an integrated system that streamlines communications between workers, provides accurate real time information, enables the delivery of tailored and timely advertisements and improves customer satisfaction.